Readdressing dysplasia at surgical margins as predictive biomarker of malignant transformation

Clinical, histological and molecular alterations observed at surgical margins could be regarded as predictive markers of malignant transformation. However, there are contrasting views on usefulness of oral epithelial dysplasia (OED) in predicting malignant transformation. In this regard, investigation of OED status at surgical margins could give an interesting perspective to this notion. We searched the reputed databases to retrieve the original research articles wherein the OED status was investigated at the mucosal surgical margins of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Intriguingly, in all the studies, number of cases in 'no dysplasia' category was higher than other grades of dysplasia. In our institutional experience of 92 cases of OSCC, 75 (82%) cases showed no evidence of dysplasia at surgical margins. Thus, we conclude that dysplasia status at surgical margins does not support the OED as potential marker of malignant transformation.